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WEDNESDAY
August 22
Hannah, Mother in Israel
Hannah named her son Samuel, which sounds like the Hebrew for
“God heard,” but which is related to “asked of God.” Hannah explains
the name: “ ‘Because I asked the Lord for him’ ” (1 Sam. 1:20, NIV).
Not wishing to go to the tabernacle until she could carry out her vow
and leave her son there, she waited until she had weaned him. In the
absence of refrigeration to keep milk fresh, this was perhaps as long
as three years.
“From the earliest dawn of intellect [Hannah] had taught her son to
love and reverence God and to regard himself as the Lord’s. By every
familiar object surrounding him she had sought to lead his thoughts
up to the Creator. When separated from her child, the faithful mother’s
solicitude did not cease. Every day he was the subject of her prayers.
Every year she made, with her own hands, a robe of service for him;
and as she went up with her husband to worship at Shiloh, she gave
the child this reminder of her love. Every fiber of the little garment
had been woven with a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true.
She did not ask for her son worldly greatness, but she earnestly
pleaded that he might attain that greatness which Heaven values—that
he might honor God and bless his fellow men.”—Ellen G. White,
Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 572.
After the child was born and weaned, Hannah fulfilled her vow to
the Lord and brought him to Eli. Hannah expected Eli, with a little
prompting, to remember the incident that had taken place. At that time
Eli had told her, without knowing her petition, “ ‘May the God of
Israel grant you what you have asked’ ”
(1 Sam. 1:17, NIV). Now
Hannah reminds him, “ ‘I prayed for this child, and the Lord has
granted me what I asked of him’ ”
(vs. 27, NIV). How easy it might
have been for her to forget the vow, to rationalize away all the reasons
for fulfilling it. After all, this was her only child!
What
reasons could Hannah have used to justify not fulfilling the vow?
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Read Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1–11. What does it tell us
about the nature and character of God? What specific elements
mean the most to you right now, in whatever personal situations
you are facing? Ho
w can y
ou mak
e these w
ords your own?
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